SWAT teams practice in state of the art virtual training range

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SWAT teams practice in state of the art virtual training range

SALT LAKE CITY – SWAT members go through special training to prepare for dangerous situations, but it’s often hard to simulate real-life situations without wasting bullets. One Utah company is helping teams across the state while helping their budget.

Joe Chapman at Chapman Academy is offering SWAT teams a chance to train in his state of the art LaserShot virtual reality weapons training range.

“Wanting to support local law enforcement when and where we can, I have offered them the opportunity to come and utilize the facilities to help them as far as additional training and doing some training that they can’t normally get out on a live fire range,” Chapman said.

Chapman says the simulation gets the officers as close to a real-life situation as possible without wasting bullets, something that will give them more confidence and experience.

“It’s good practice for us; it’s good to put us through the scenarios so if something similar like that happens to us, we will have a good idea of how to react. It trains us to give good voice commands especially from the input that the instructors give us, like hey we would have done this or maybe you want to change this up next time,” said Sgt. Ron Johnson.

Officers say it also gives them a good chance to practice with people they’d be working with in real-life situations.